Wednesday, June 07, 2017

Coimbatore: When representatives of seven districts of the western region met Chief Minister Edappadi K. Palaniswami and Municipal Administration Minister S.P. Velumani in Chennai recently, there was a promise that they would do the needful to expedite land acquisition process for expansion of Coimbatore International Airport.

“We estimate that about ₹ 40 crore would be needed to acquire 45 to 50 acres for the first phase of expansion. If the government can allocate this amount and expedite the process, the expansion work will start off,” said Vanitha Mohan, convenor of Kongu Global Forum.

The forum was formed to take up jointly the demands of the western districts of the State. “We met the State Government officials and explained how important it was to expand the airport here. The benefits from it would be huge,” she said.

According to a press release from the forum, its representatives had met the Civil Aviation authorities recently in New Delhi and sought more international flights to and from Coimbatore. Though the airport was declared an international airport in 2011, it had direct flight connectivity to just two international destinations now.
07/06/17 The Hindu